Shaquille Cleare, a 6-10, 285-pound center out of Texas, has signed to play basketball at Maryland.

Cleare, from The Village School in Houston, is ranked No. 29 by Rivals.com.

Writes Damon Sales of TexasHoops.com: Cleare brings power and intensity to the court, but he also has soft hands and a nice touch from 12 feet and within.

"I think everybody is sleeping on the kid," Aaron Harrison, Cleare's AAU coach told ESPN's Dave Telep. "What people don't know is that he's a relentless workout machine. He's not overweight, that's just his size. He's a different kind of animal. People haven't realized that but he is. I can't tell you where his ceiling is at. He's only been playing basketball four years."
http://content.usatoday.com/communit...uille-cleare/1

---------- Post added August-24th-2011 at 05:05 PM ----------
With Cleare in the fold, it seems possible that Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon and his staff could be on the verge of adding commitments from some of the other top prospects they have been recruiting.

“I think so,” Harvey said. “I think a lot of guys were waiting on him. By him going ahead and getting it over with, I think you’ll see some of the other guys start to fall and go that way as well.”

Maryland began recruiting Cleare early in the process, with former coach Gary Williams and his staff making inroads.

“He fell in love with Gary Williams and when Gary Williams left, Shaq was devastated,” Harvey said. “What pulled Shaq to Gary Williams was his ability to put players at the next level. But the school that was next on his list was [Texas] A&M and we know how that ended up. They hired Turgeon and Maryland was even higher on his list.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...sTbJ_blog.html